Oh, silly town of Bethlehem

From today’s editorials: Juvenile misbehavior calls for mature solutions, not tying up the legal system unnecessarily.

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The first mistake in what might be called the Case of the Overblown Case happened when four teenagers decided to go prowling in the dark, banging on doors and ringing bells.

The second gaffe — albeit an understandable one — occurred when one homeowner decided to chase down the kids.

And the third and fourth bad calls came when police and the father of one of the youths decided to press charges ­— against the homeowner.

Now that the heat of the moment has passed, perhaps cooler heads will prevail, everyone will realize things could have turned out a whole lot worse, and this episode won’t take up any more of the legal system’s time than it needs to.

Here, if you missed it in the news, on talk radio, or in the blogosphere, is a recap:

Four teens on a sleepover decided to go out for a few rounds of “ding dong ditch” in Bethlehem. Around 10:30 p.m., they targeted the home of Daniel Van Plew, whose wife and two children were in their beds upstairs. Mr. Van Plew happened to be awake and downstairs at the time, and said he grew alarmed when he spotted someone skulking around outside. As he went to check, there was pounding on his back door and the front bell rang. He gave chase, and tackled a 14-year-old. He took him inside, sat him on the floor and called police.

Now, it’s Mr. Van Plew who’s been charged — with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, and harassment, a violation. The boy’s father, Rob Madeo, said his son is being dealt with “in the harshest possible way” but stands by his decision to press charges, given the boy’s injuries — a cut on his elbow, bruise over his eye and a bloody lip — and his claim that Mr. Van Plew threatened his son. Mr. Van Plew said it was the boy who was verbally abusive.

As for the youths, they won’t be charged. Their offense, trespass, is a violation that doesn’t qualify as a family court matter.

Here is what would happen in a saner world:

The boy would apologize and consider himself lucky. All it would have taken was one frightened homeowner with a gun for this to have been a tragedy.

Mr. Van Plew — and any others tempted to follow his lead — would consider the same thing. He might just as easily have run right into a belligerent quartet of armed young men.

Mr. Madeo, Bethlehem police and Albany County District Attorney David Soares would consider what message they’re sending here, when a story like this ends with no kids in any real trouble while a man who, for all appearances, was just defending his family is facing charges.

An episode that began with utterly adolescent behavior would be put to rest by grown-ups acting like adults.

Jay Jochnowitz

10 Responses

This is ludicrous. The parents should be grateful instead of pressing charges; grateful the kids didn’t encounter a homeowner with a gun. As minor a prank as ding-dong-ditch seems to men of a certain age, the reality is we don’t live in that era any more. Today, we live in a time of youth gangs, home invasions and police who are incredibly effective at catching speeders but not so much at ever resolving this type of “crime.” Of course, we also live in a time of entitlement, when kids are given carte blanche to do what they want and victims are held accountable. This event will leave a presumably otherwise good man with a criminal record while the juveniles who perpetrated the act go unpunished and unrepentent. Either all charges should be dropped (best), or counter-charges need to be brought by the community to send the right message about who was ultimately in the wrong.

To clear this up quicker, both ends need to apologize. The boy and his friends need to apologize for coming off as intruders and explain to the owner they meant no harm. The home owner needs to apologize to the boy for accidentally hurting him by his tackle.

If either them would have apologized, this wouldn’t be such a big fiasco.

This youngster–and his three “accomplices”–are lucky to have gotten off with nothing worse than scrapes and bruises. They could have been killed! How was the homeowner to know that it was just a bunch of kids who were just fooling around? It’s madness to insist that he wait until rocks come through windows before he takes action. I can’t help wondering what kind of parents this kid has. Instead of teaching the boy to take responsibility (and assume consequences)for his actions they show him that the law can be used in a frivolous manner.

A parent, angry and embarrassed at his son’s behavior, decides to camouflage his feelings by taking out his anger on an innocent homeowner? Is that it, basically?? Whatever happened to marching your kid over to the neighbor’s home and making the kid apologize? Jeez.

“He’s just a kid!” “This is child endangerment!” Does this kid’s attorney seriously believe the “babe in the woods” image she’s spinning?! Does she really think anyone in this day and age will buy into it? Here’s an example of what teenage “kids” are capable of (see link below)….who knows?! Maybe this is what was going through Van Plew’s mind when he saw four shadows roaming through his yard, ringing his doorbell and pounding on his back door. A large percentage of violent crime is now being perpetrated by kids. School shootings, home invasions, rapes, murders, you name it. This is just a sad truth. This case does nothing more than affirm to kids that there is no longer any repercussions for their actions. I think most people understand that kids get themselves into trouble from time to time – we all do stupid things. I think the outrage here is with this kid’s parents – instead of pressing charges and putting Mr. Van Plew through hell, they should have just punished their kid, let it go and allowed this homeowner and the community to move on.

When I was younger, if we were caught doing something like that, the homeowner would have thrown us in his car and driven us to our parents house – where my father wouldve not only have made me apologize, but there would be more trouble to follow – and the worst of it???? being in that homeowners car on my way home knowing what was in store for me!